Abdulasy, Gopaul and a third man were implicated in an early morning robbery at Hampshire, Corentyne, Berbice last month. Gopaul’s family has since denied his involvement and insists he was “murdered”. Abdulasy was with Gopaul that morning and heard the three shots which he believes killed his friend.
Police, in a press statement on the evening of December 18, reported that at about 1.30 am the same day Gopaul, Abdulasy and another man robbed a family at Hampshire Village, Corentyne.
Three men, armed with a gun and a cutlass, had broken a window and entered the home, gathered their booty, and as they were escaping fired a shot.
Acting on information received, police said, they were able to pursue the robbers and came under fire at the Rose Hall Cemetery. Police pursued the men and again came under gunfire at Port Mourant. They returned fire, fatally wounding Gopaul. One of Gopaul’s accomplices was subsequently arrested in the Port Mourant district.
Eight 9 mm rounds were found in Gopaul’s pocket, according to police, who said he had been “positively identified as one of the three” robbers. A 9 mm warhead was recovered by police at the Hampshire robbery scene.
Abdulasy, 23, disputes the police’s account of what happened. He spoke with Stabroek News via telephone on Tuesday.
“We was digging scrap iron up that night,” Abdulasy recalled, “and about 3.30 that morning we went by he [Gopaul] to collect the donkey cart.”
Abdulasy said they returned to the site where they were digging scrap metal and loaded the cart for the return trip. It was while they were moving along a dam in Rose Hall, a short distance away from Gopaul’s house, that they came under fire, the man said.
“I hear de gunshots before I look back,” Abdulasy remembered, “and when I look back I see this police pick-up with about five of them in the tray and they shooting at us… At first I thought was one of dem estate vehicle because I know they does normally be on the dam so early.”
The police vehicle, according to him, pulled in the corner and continued firing shots.
“Me and Hemchand jump in de bush at de side of de dam and the other guy jump in the trench,” Abdulasy said.
His right foot, the man said, was grazed by a bullet while Gopaul took a bullet in the shoulder before they managed to dive into the bushes.
“We lie down there on the ground… I didn’t know wa going on and then some time after de police come and drag we out de bush,” Abdulasy recalled. “Right then I can’t tell you how frighten I was frighten.”
Abdulasy could not say exactly how long he and Gopaul lay in the bushes. The man said he was too confused and afraid to give much attention to such details at the time.
‘Leh abe kill this boy one time’
After he and Gopaul were dragged from the bushes, Abdulasy said, he overheard a policeman (who he named) say he knew Gopaul. According to Abdulasy, the policeman told a colleague that Gopaul “has a record” and “is a thief”.
“I hear this policeman say that he know this one [Gopaul] and then he say ‘Leh abe kill this boy one time’,” Abdulasy alleged.
As the policemen spoke with each other, Abdulasy remembered, he was thrown in the back of their pick-up even as he denied the robbery allegation.
“I tell dem we na been and rob nobody,” Abdulasy said. “I tell dem that we been and dig scrap iron and de whole donkey cart full of scrap iron was right there with we. Dem [the police] see it and when dem done shoot he [Gopaul] dem throw all de scrap iron in de trench and hide de donkey cart.”
Abdulasy was already being held in the back of the police vehicle when he allegedly heard the policeman say Gopaul should be killed. The man said he then heard a gun shot followed shortly after by two more at intervals.
“I nah get to look up when dem shoot though because every time I try dem keep knocking me down back in de pick-up tray…but I know he [Gopaul] nah try to run because I ain’t hear nothing sounding like… he lef’ right there on de ground where dem lef’ he when dem pull he out from de bush.”
More police vehicles showed up a while after he heard the three bullets, Abdulasy said, and he was placed in another vehicle and taken to the Albion Police Station.
Later that morning Vishnu Gopaul saw his son’s lifeless body being loaded into a hearse. The police had ransacked his house early that morning, Vishnu had said, but refused to tell him anything.
In the police’s version of events they had said that Gopaul and his two companions, opened fire. They had also reported that a number of bullets were found in Gopaul’s pocket and the bullets matched one that was recovered at the Hampshire robbery scene.
However, Vishnu Gopaul has since maintained his son’s innocence.
“Meh son, right, he lef’ hand na good… Last year police accuse he of robbing this man and when this man and he friend find meh son dem give he two chop on he left hand,” Vishnu had said.
Vishnu related that Gopaul was chopped last December and spent almost three weeks in hospital and was later charged. “Dem tell me son last year that he attempt fuh thief fowl,” the man said. The man said Gopaul was later placed on $100,000 bail which he paid, but was never able to regain use of his hand. His son’s handicap, Vishnu had said, would not have allowed him to operate a firearm.
Gopaul, his father told Stabroek News on Tuesday, sustained three gunshot wounds; one each to the stomach, neck and shoulder. However, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud had told Stabroek News that a post-mortem examination conducted on Gopaul’s body revealed that there were three wounds on his body, two of which were possibly caused by the same bullet.
Regardless of whether Gopaul took two or three bullets, the Crime Chief had said, the post mortem showed that the bullets which caused the wounds were all fired from “intermediate” distances. None of the shots, the Crime Chief stressed, were fired at close range.
Despite Seelall’s statement Gopaul’s father is not convinced that all the bullets were fired from intermediate distances.
“When I see his body,” Vishnu Gopaul said, “he had wounds in he neck, stomach, shoulder and neck and de chest one didn’t look like whoever had de gun been standing far from me son… The neck wound rip the side of he throat.”
The matter has since been reported to the Police Complaints Authority (PCA). When the PCA receives such complaints they are first examined and then referred to the Commissioner for investigation and inquiry.
